Tackling Waterfalls

When I typed the titled I heard "Waterfalls" by TLC in my head :)

This weekend I revisited my current favorite spot in Colorado Springs- Helen Hunt Falls. It's only about 12 minutes away from my house and it's free to go, so I love to drive up there and sit by the falls and read. It is very peaceful- usually- until the summer tourists show up starting in late May. I haven't been up there too much this summer because I've been very busy doing schoolwork (which is almost done!), but I decided to go on Saturday and use hiking to the top as my workout.

When we first moved to Colorado I went on a photography "expedition" through Colorado Springs with the Outdoor Recreation Center on post. The guide took us to a few places in Colorado Springs to take pictures, taught us how to shoot landscapes. When we got to Helen Hunt falls I fell in love, but when we started hiking up to the second waterfall and I could barely breathe halfway up the 1/3 mi hike, I lost my affection and just wanted to get back to a normal elevation- like below sea level...

I haven't tried to go to the top since then because the falls quickly froze after my first trip up there last year, but since it was a beautiful day on Saturday and there were no rainclouds, I took a couple of friends and finally hiked to the second fall. The view from the top was amazing, but honestly not too different from what I saw the first time I went up and didn't make it to the top! But, the exciting part is that I climbed without getting tired, and when I got to the top I wasn't even breathing hard! I know that I'm acclimated to the altitude now, but that's only part of it. I wouldn't have been able to get up so easily a couple of months ago :) Yay!

My Family Readiness Group (FRG is a team of volunteers that assist spouses of deployed soldiers with information regarding their soldiers and act as liasons between spouses and the unit) is joining the Pikes Peak Challenge this fall. It's a fundraising event for traumatic brain injury research and care, and participants hike up to the top of Pikes Peak. I'm really excited because I wanted to hike Pikes Peak this summer anyway, but now I have people that are going to train to do it, too :) It's funny because when they were talking about the event at the FRG meeting they were treating it like "just a 13 mile hike." But, man, that's a 7510 ft elevation gain, and it will take at least 8-10 hours to get from the trailhead to the summit. That's not just any 13 mile hike...